Can they take my social security?

Why are you not appearing?

I allude to Soaplady! Why are you not attending? You will lose by default. Only the Feds can garnish your SS but once it lands in your bank they could put a lien on your account! You will have to speak to your bank about that!

From everything I have been reading on the internet, and from what I have been reading is appears SS cannot be touched/garnished except for a few things (taxes, student loans, etc); but definitely not for unsecured loans like cc debt, medical bills, pdls. If you don't own a home or other assets, it makes no sense for them to sue you.....there's nothing they can take. I would definitely appear in court and state your case; if there's a reason why you cannot travel, talk with the courts to see if you could call in during the case. Just my 2 cents.

I think what she is referring to is the supplementary process hearing.....what happens after the judgment is entered....I know some states issue a Capias for not showing and that is a civil arrest to bring you in front of the judge.

You need to show proof that your only income is SS and that all money in your bank account is from SS. If they try to attack your bank account you will need to go to court to atest it. That is why you need to show up at the payment hearing and have them file your income status.

I'm talking about not showing up for the judgement phase because I have no defense..I do owe the money. Long story short....I'm everyones worst nightmare. Met someone online divorced my husband gave this guy all my money including divorce settlement and also all my possessions that were worth anything. Allowed him to max out my credit cards and then found out he was married...scamming me the whole time. So now I'm in debt for first time in my life and I have no job...no assets...no home. Im currently living with my son in a small apartment but I do have my social security which isn't much because its from my exhusbands ss. I know I can never pay these 2 cards off so am just not sure what I should be doing about this. It says on the papers I received that I dont need to show up for the judgement hearing. So there will be a payment hearing after that? And yes I of course will show up for that...just didnt know what to expect.

Sounds like you have had a really tough time and was taken advantage of by someone who was not worthy of your love or friendship. But now it sounds like you are focusing on the future and doing what you need to do to protect yourself.

OC or CA cannot take/garnish your SS for cc debt; but if they win a judgment against you it will stay there for several years (and depending upon the state, can be renewed). If sometime in the future your situation changes (you acquire assets, get a job, come into money) they may try to collect on the judgment.

If you go to court for the judgment phase and let the court know that you have no assets...only your SS; I don't know if that would affect the outcome. Maybe someone here could advise, or maybe research on the Net about it. Best of luck to you.

The others are right, you really need to go to the hearing,whether they say yo do or not. Did the papers you receive have anywhere that you put an answer back to the courts?

I know in our state, they cannot garnish SSI for example, child support, but they can garnish SSDI, so you need to check this out.

I would get print outs from the bank with the disability check info on it, and any papers you have about that being your only income.

My oldest son is disabled and lives with me and I have had to deal with creditors in the past. There were a couple of creditors,that when I told them he would never work again,etc., have just charged off the account. And there were some that tried to collect on a 10 year old debt.

Whatever the case is, you need to show up and be pro active in your affairs and show them what you have and what you live on, and go from there..Don't give up!!..Good Luck--keep us posted..karen